In the December 2013 issue of Paddling Magazine, we featured Will Meadows, an intrepid 23-year-old explorer who had just returned from a year spent learning traditional canoe building techniques from indigeous master builders. He’s now being featured on Vice online, discussing why canoes still matter in a high-tech age. Check out the excerpt below, then read the rest of the interview here.
“What does the canoe inform us about tradition? About technology?
Traditions survive largely based on need and viability. The canoe is a perfect example, being an art form and an interesting tradition, but ultimately a vessel for economies and cultures. The canoe is still useful to people all around the world because it is such a great idea. That idea has been great for tens of thousands of years and is great all over the world. Even in place with the most technological advances, it is still awesome to get out and paddle.
An important thing to remember about traditions and technology is that when it is good, it is good. There is no point in doing something you don’t enjoy, don’t find meaning in, or don’t find useful. The canoe still has bits and pieces of these worths. We are combining many traditions, old and new, in our lives daily, from the way we treat each other to the way we get to work, to the way we eat, or what we do at work…” Read the rest of the interview with Vice here.
Will is also blogging about his latest adventures in Tierra del Fuego on National Geographic online, read it here.
